This September 11,as the swirling ashes
of the Twin Towers continue to descend far and wide, it is a full five years
since the start of the American Inquisition. September 11, that heinous crime
that should have been registered in the nearest NYPD precinct that same evening
to begin a relentless hunt for the criminals by that precinct’s homicide
detectives, has instead turned out to be Manna from Heaven for the flag bearers
of the new Inquisition.

Over the course of history, the word inquisition has been restricted
to refer to Spain in the Middle Ages. But if one seeks
to explain the dangerous mix of religious prejudice, Christian holy war,
Islamic jihad, ethnic profiling, racism, mock trials and eavesdropping by
secret police, no other term comes to mind. Not only that, like the export of the
Spanish Inquisition , the American Inquisition too has been taken to the far
flung corners of the earth. The torturing of victims in secret dungeons remains
the same. Missing are burnings at the stake, but given the hideous wonders that
white phosphorous can perform on human flesh, and in far less time, who
requires such an inefficient procedure?

Although it's common knowledge, one never tires of quoting the prophetic
words of President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower, spoke by him
during his farewell address to his nation on January 17, 1961:

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced
power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our
liberties or our democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only
an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge
industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and
goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

One notes with great irony that, riding on the back of the crime
of September 11, a powerful cabal of Americans has dealt a death blow to the deceased
President's momentous words, almost word by word. Not only has the "misplaced
power" arisen "disastrously," but with "violent method,"
they continue to use the awesome power of America's military to achieve
sinister "goals" while withdrawing the "liberty" of Americans,
and in the process, making them ever less "insecure."

And this cabal is no group of ragtag carpetbaggers. They are the
inheritors of a long tradition. In the hunt for new lands for their Imperial
masters, their ideological forefathers practiced their craft for centuries.
Waiting just behind the scenes, they appear when they scent of new
opportunities like hyenas do at the stench of a rotting carcass.

As far back as 1492, the point man for exporting the Spanish
Inquisition into foreign lands was Christopher Columbus. This most barbarous
period in all of human history was funded by private investors, since the royal
monarchs were broke after their campaign in Granada against the Muslims of
Spain. The investors promised Colombus10 percent of all revenue in
perpetuity derived from the new lands. They never fulfilled their promise …

Likewise India, the Jewel of the British Crown, was conquered for
the Queen by the British East India Company. Based in London, this company was nothing
more than a commercial trading venture that had a trade monopoly over the
entire East Indies for 21 years. But instead of trade on behalf of Her Imperial
Majesty, it presided over the creation of a far more profitable enterprise - the
British Raj .
Starting with the decisive victory of Sir Robert Clive at the Battle of Plassey that established the British East India Company as a military as well as a
commercial power in 1757 until its dissolution in 1858, that company virtually
ruled India.

Five years back from this date, airliners appeared in the cobalt
blue skies of New York as if sent by the gods above. Within minutes they had punctured
two massive wonders of human achievement, reducing them and their occupants to
a tangled mass of steel, concrete and human flesh. While the world stood numb
and aghast at the pain of the victims and the sheer scale of the crime, in some
dark unlit corner of America, a malicious, hateful, warmongering few soaked in
this Manna from Heaven.

Not much later, these sub-humanoids had catapulted America into a
ceaseless war not of self defense, but of fear, insecurity, suspicion, hatred,
anger, reprisal and a blind, jingoistic patriotism that continues to take its
toll on humanity. No one has put it better than Manuel Valenzuela who, in his
profound essay Gods of War, Gods of Greed and Profiteers of Misery says:

"It was on that day that the misery of millions became the
fortune of a few thousand. It was on that day that the Military Industrial
Complex and the Corporate Leviathan wrestled ultimate control from the people
of the world, usurping global power and forever altering the future of
humanity. Our 9/11 became their Pearl Harbor, a moment
in time needed to unleash already predetermined plans to expand power and
control on a now easily manipulated and mobilized citizenry. The greatest
profiteers in the history of the United States were now free to release their
hounds of war, conquest, greed and violence upon the rest of civilization."

So this 5th anniversary of that dreadful crime, as President
George W. Bush sits in his predecessor’s chair gorging himself on 9-11 Manna
from Heaven, with the flag bearers of the American Inquisition lurking just in
the background, let me remind readers that President Dwight D. Eisenhower had finished
his prophetic farewell speech with the following words;

"To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression
to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration:

We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may
have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall
come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its
spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its
heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others
will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be
made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all
peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force
of mutual respect and love."

President Eisenhower must be turning in his grave.

*Anwaar Hussain is a former Pakistan Air Force F-16 fighter pilot.
With a Masters in Defense and Strategic Studies from Quaid-e-Azam University
Islamabad, he now resides in United Arab Emirates. He has published a series of
articles in Defense Journal, South Asia Tribune and a host of other web portals.
Other than international affairs, Anwaar Hussain has written extensively on the
religious and political issues that plague Pakistan.